


I'm Fallin' (for You)

by Reioka



Series: AUgust 2020 [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: AU-gust 2020, AUgust - Freeform, Alternate Universe - College/University, Bad Matchmaking, Fluff and Humor, Injury, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:55:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25742452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reioka/pseuds/Reioka
Summary: Tony just wants to ogle Thor and pine away for him in peace. Is that too much to ask? (Considering Steve just wants to get their economics project finished, yes.)
Relationships: Tony Stark/Thor
Series: AUgust 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860847
Comments: 27
Kudos: 312





	I'm Fallin' (for You)

**Author's Note:**

> Am currently working on to bang projects so things are coming out a little slower. I figure if I get it finished before next August it's fine lol.

I'm Fallin' (for You)

Tony had been using the same study room every Tuesday at three for the past six months.

It was part of his routine: He’d stop at the coffee cart downstairs, order a coffee and pastry, go up to the library and flirt shamelessly with the librarian, then he’d go to the study room and set himself up. His laptop would be open, his notebooks would be out, his books sprawled out around him to various pages, and his coffee and pastry sitting safely to the side. Then he’d spend the hour he reserved in the study room staring at another student, making sure to pretend like he was working anytime said student happened to glance his way.

Rhodey had made fun of him for it viciously, even taking a video to show him that just because the student he had a crush on didn’t notice him giving him doe eyes, literally everyone else in the library did. He’d stared for fifteen minutes straight, once. Tony insisted that he couldn’t be faulted for this. The other student was just… too pretty.

Tony knew everything about him that was possible to know without actually speaking to him. His name was Thor Odinson. His parents had come over from Europe to open up an American branch of their company and their sons hadn’t wanted to go back home, so they’d stayed here in the states. Thor had been a wrestler on his high school’s varsity wrestling team, and he’d obtained a very lucrative scholarship to come here to get a degree in physics like his parents wanted, although he talked about getting a teaching degree once his parents got off his back about getting a ‘real’ degree. He was athletic, smart, _and_ he liked kids.

So of course he was dating Jane Foster, another physics major.

Tony sighed down at his coffee cup, wishing he could hate her a little bit. But he’d gotten partnered up with her to do a project in their abstract algebra class, and she’d been absolutely lovely. She was smart, and ambitious, and pretty. It made sense that Thor would like her. Still, Jane was nice enough that she only smiled at him when she noticed him staring at her boyfriend. Like she wasn’t threatened at all.

Then again, Tony had seen Jane and Thor working out together, so he was reasonably certain that if she felt threatened, she could just pick him up and stick him in a garbage can. He took a sip of his latte, considering. Actually, if Jane picked him up and stuck him in a garbage can, he wouldn’t even be mad.

“Tony,” Steve said, sounding very disappointed.

Tony jerked his attention to him guiltily. They’d been meant to work on an economics project together, and Tony’s ogling time had been the only time he was free. “Sorry,” he said, turning so he wasn’t looking out the window. He found himself wanting to glance out again, though, so he eventually sighed and began gathering up his stuff. “Will you switch seats with me, so I don’t get distracted?”

“Sure,” Steve answered, shuffling his papers over to the other side of the table. He took a moment to peer out the window to see what he was being distracted by, then groaned, loudly, like Tony had just personally reached into his stomach and yanked out something important. “Really? Jane Foster?”

“Hey! Jane is really cool!” Tony exclaimed defensively. “And it’s not her, anyway.”

Steve jerked like he’d been shocked. “I know that Jane is really cool! I—sorry, that came out wrong,” he sighed, lifting his hand to scrub it over his face. “It’s just that Natasha’s been flirting with her really aggressively and I didn’t want to be the one to have to tell her that she’s competing with you. I’d hate to have to identify your body after Natasha finished murdering you.”

Tony clutched his chest, hurt. “Hey! You don’t think I could hold my own against Natasha?”

“Natasha could kill us all,” Steve deadpanned.

“Yeah, but she thinks I’m cute, like a Pomeranian,” Tony pointed out. Then he frowned, confused. “Wait, what do you mean that Natasha is flirting with Jane? She’s dating Thor.”

Steve frowned at him uncertainly. “She… _was_ dating Thor. They broke up like two months ago.”

“What?” Tony turned in his seat to look out the window at Thor and Jane, who looked just as chummy as they usually did. “No they didn’t.” He looked back at Steve, confused. “Really? But nothing changed.”

“They were friends before they started dating, so they just… stayed friends? Thor and I even went on a couple dates after they broke up, and—Tony, are you okay,” Steve asked in concern when Tony made a sad noise and began to sink in his chair. “Oh God. It was Thor you were looking at. Tony, they were just low-key rebound things—”

Tony sighed miserably. Of course Thor would date Steve. Steve was just as big and buff as Thor was, and liked sports, and talked about politics. Tony could barely be assed to take his daily jogs, or he worked out when Rhodey dragged him kicking and screaming to the gym. Tony didn’t like watching sports, either, unless it was one of his teams, of which he had few. And the last time someone asked him about politics, he’d literally just turned on his heel and walked away. It made sense that Thor would like someone with similar interests.

“Tony,” Steve said hurriedly. “Tony please I’m not Thor’s type we were both rebounding from relationships the dates didn’t mean anything—”

Tony sighed again and finally slithered down out of his chair and onto the floor. “Maybe Natasha can kill me anyway,” he said, forlorn.

“Tony,” Steve barked, crawling under the table after him. “You know I have to tell Jim when you say things like that.”

“Nooo,” Tony whined, but Steve was muscling him out from under the table anyway.

.-.-.-.

Thor stopped sitting at the table that Tony could see from the study room.

Steve must have told Thor he was creeping on him. Or Natasha had finally seduced Jane, and she’d told her, and Jane had told Thor. Either way, Thor was gone, and now he couldn’t even ogle him. He’d figured he wouldn’t have a chance, but now, knowing it for a fact… it hurt. More than he’d expected. He wasn’t Thor’s type, and he knew, logically, that he couldn’t be everyone’s type, but… at least before, he could have hoped.

Tony sighed, scrubbing a hand through his hair, then sagged in his seat. He couldn’t concentrate. There was no point staying if he couldn’t get any work done. It’s not like there was anything else to look at, anyway. Maybe he should find a different study room. Or maybe he should just give up on the library and study in his dorm room. Then he wouldn’t have to see anyone except Rhodey, and Rhodey was being nice to him currently because Tony couldn’t help but sob, “He dated Steve,” and he’d felt sorry for him.

Even the coffee didn’t taste good anymore, he thought glumly, staring down at his cup. He tossed it into the trash, then sighed again. He probably could have handed it off to one of the other students outside. He hadn’t had that much of it, after all, and coffee was coffee.

Tony tipped his head back and heaved one last sigh, figuring he should just commit to the whole depressed harlequin heroine theme. Then he straightened his shoulders and left the study room, heading for the stairs. Maybe if he texted Rhodey or Carol that he was sad, they’d come to the dorm with burritos and booze. And if that failed, he could text Natasha and offer her information on Jane’s favorite pizza in return for a home-spa night.

“Tony,” someone said, and he turned.

Then Tony saw it was Thor, and he managed some sort of… squeaky noise? His voice may have cracked. He’d had puberty late it wasn’t his fault. But then he noticed Steve and Natasha standing behind Thor looking quietly murderous and he couldn’t help the urge to flee, even though he also wanted to stay and bask in Thor’s smile?

Anyway, everything hurt, and Tony was pretty sure he was dying.

“You’re not dying,” Rhodey told him firmly, leaning over him. He sounded very far away.

“Hurts,” Tony managed to say.

Carol leaned over him as well, hovering over Rhodey’s shoulder. “Well, bud,” she said, smiling awkwardly. “People usually _do_ hurt after they’ve fallen down the stairs.”

Tony stared up at her, uncomprehending. “I fell down the stairs?”

“You launched,” Rhodey corrected, lifting his head to glare up at something before looking back down at him. “You launched down the stairs. Luckily you landed on Wade, so you basically just bounced when you landed.”

“You okay, buddy?” Wade asked, leaning into view as well.

Tony stared up at him as well. “I broke your face?”

“Well, it was either my face broke your fall, or the floor, so. This way we both have black eyes!” Wade said cheerfully. “Jane’s leading the EMTs over, by the way,” he added to Rhodey. “Is it okay if I ride in the ambulance? I can’t afford an ambulance myself but my nose actually really hurts. I think I lost a tooth.”

“Sure,” Rhodey replied magnanimously. “But only because you used your head to save Tony’s.”

.-.-.-.

Tony wasn’t sure why everyone was fussing over him. Sure, he could have died, but he _didn’t_. Wade had broken his fall. He also wasn’t entirely sure why everyone was apologizing to him? Even Rhodey and Carol were doing it. The only one who hadn’t apologized to him was Wade, who had cheerfully taken him up on letting him pay for his medical bills.

Also Thor, Steve, and Natasha were there. Tony hadn’t really expected them to come visit.

“How do you fit in these chairs?” Tony asked Thor and Steve seriously.

“Guilt,” Thor answered immediately.

Steve shrugged, grimacing. “I actually can’t feel my legs.”

“Incredible,” Tony said, and Carol snorted her shitty hospital coffee out her nose.

“I’m gonna help Carol get all the coffee residue out of her sinuses. I think that you should all talk to Tony before we get back.” The way Rhodey said it was probably significant, with the way he was glaring at everyone.

“Oh my God I smell the creamer,” Carol groaned as Rhodey dragged her from the room.

Tony watched them go, blinking after them guilelessly, then turned to face the others, head lolling across the pillow until Jane delicately placed his head straight. “Thank you Jane you’re so pretty,” Tony told her.

“Aw, thank you, Tony,” she replied, smiling at him and gently petting his hair. “And you’re so… high.”

“I am so high,” Tony agreed.

Jane made a noise that sounded a lot like a ‘snrk’ and a ‘pfffft’ rolled into one. Somehow she still looked pretty when she did it. “Why don’t you listen to what the others have to say, huh?” she suggested. She gave said others a filthy look. “They have _a lot_ to say.”

“I will try to listen,” Tony agreed magnanimously. “Unfortunately, I am! So! High! Which is fine? My arm doesn’t hurt. Nor does my face.”

“That’s good to hear,” Jane assured him, then made very mean, pointed eye contact with the others before she left.

Tony beamed after her. Jane was so nice and smart and pretty. She was literally too cool for all of them. Luckily she was so nice. And smart. And pretty.

“Oh my God,” Steve breathed. He looked one second away from grabbing his phone. He seemed to think better of it, though, and kept his hands folded in his lap. “Tony,” he said mournfully.

Oh-oh. Steve looked upset. Tony frowned, wondering what he could have possibly done to cause that. He wasn’t even entirely sure why Steve had been glaring at him before the accident.

“Oh-oh,” Natasha said, eyes glassy. “Steve. He said ‘oh-oh.’ This is ruining my life.”

Tony didn’t think he’d said anything, but of the four of them, he was the only one with narcotics in his body. He should probably defer to them.

“Tony,” Steve said again, somehow ramping up the mournful quality in his face. “I wasn’t glaring at you. I was glaring at Thor.”

But Thor was an angel. And they’d probably definitely banged. Why would he glare at Thor?

“I am crying,” Natasha said, and oh, she was. “My life is ruined. Oh my God.”

“We did not bang and Thor is not an angel,” Steve informed him with surprising certainty for a man who enjoyed gummy worms soaked in moonshine. “He cheats at cards.”

“Steve, it’s not his fault that you’re bad at cheating at cards,” Tony told him, eyes wide and dewy.

Steve opened his mouth, then closed it again, staring. Finally, he said, “Are you saying that you cheat at cards, too?”

“You’re the only one who doesn’t,” Tony answered, bewildered. “One time Clint literally switched cards from his hand and yours.”

Steve gasped, offended. “For real?!”

“Don’t get distracted,” Natasha said, elbowing him. “Also I’ll teach you how to cheat at cards.”

“Bucky?” Steve asked, voice cracking.

“He’s the worst cheater of them all,” Thor told him solemnly.

Steve seemed to collapse in his seat, staring into space, probably thinking of all the times they’d hustled money to him because he refused to let anyone loan him money or pay for him as a treat.

Natasha and Thor looked at him in concern, but eventually Natasha seemed to deem Steve ‘okay’ and returned her attention to Tony. “Tony, we weren’t glaring at you. We were glaring at Thor. Because he is a fucking dumbass.”

Tony blinked at her slowly. That didn’t make sense. Thor was a delight. Thor was built like a brick house with gentle hands. Thor was smart and funny and kind. Thor also had a ruthless streak because apparently siblings had to be ruthless against each other, but he usually only used it for good.

“Thor is not a delight because he is a fucking dumbass,” Natasha informed him sternly. “He stares at your ass whenever you’re jogging with Jim, and he talks about the robots you’ve built all the time, and _he sits exactly where you can see him in the library_. He is so horny for you it’s not even funny and we were bullying him into admitting it to you because Steve said you were sad because you didn’t think Thor would like you when really all he wants to do is hold your hand. It’s super gross how much he wants to cuddle you actually. And then we accidentally caused you to launch yourself down the stairs and break your nose on Wade’s face and your arm when you landed on it and we’re sorry. Thor most of all,” she added through grit teeth, glaring at Thor again from the corner of her eye.

“I am,” Thor admitted weakly, slouching under the force of even a partial glare from her.

Tony blinked at her again, trying to take in everything she’d said. It had been a lot. Finally, he said, “At least I wasn’t holding coffee.”

“Oh my fucking—” Natasha began, livid.

“Get out,” a voice said coldly, and all three of them flinched where they sat before hesitantly turning to look at who it was. Maria Stark hovered in the door the way only a mother who had taken an emergency flight all the way from Italy could, anger in every line of her features.

“Mama I told Wade we’d pay for his face,” Tony told her happily.

Maria’s expression softened as she smiled at her son. “Of course we are, Tony. He saved your life.” She jerked her attention back to the other three, angry again. “And I would like you three to leave until I calm down.”

“Yes ma’am,” Thor and Natasha answered immediately, getting up to leave.

Steve stayed where he was, lips moving silently. Ostensibly, he was trying to figure out just how much money he’d fraudulently won at cards, and how loud he’d have to yell to make everyone regret it.

Maria stared at Steve for a moment, scowling, then looked at Tony in concern. “Tony, should I call a nurse?”

“He’s just going over every card game we’ve played where he won money now that he knows he’s the only one who didn’t cheat,” Tony told her happily.

“Oh, that one,” Maria sighed.

Thor and Jim scurried in to grab Steve and drag him out with them. “Sorry ma’am,” they told her meekly before they shut the door.

Maria stared after them for a moment, then carefully sat in one of the abandoned chairs and took Tony’s hand in her own. “How are you doing, sweetie?”

“Mama, you’re so pretty, even when you look ready to rip people’s faces off,” Tony slurred.

“Oh dear,” Maria said, and swallowed down the urge to laugh at him.

Luckily, Maria was calmed down enough by the time the drugs wore off that Tony could assure her that no one could have known that his brain would spin out over a fight-or-flight response and launch him bodily down the stairs. From the video that the school had released to them, Tony looked like he’d sort of squawked, tripped over his own foot as he tried to leap down the stairs, and went pinwheeling through the air until he, quite literally, smacked nose-to-nose with Wade Wilson and they’d gone down in a flail of limbs. As it turned out, he also had a hairline fracture in the ankle of the foot he’d tripped over.

“How,” Maria said.

“I am a man of many talents,” Tony informed her. All told, he thought he’d gotten off pretty lightly, considering how spectacularly he’d gone down—a broken nose and black eyes, a mild concussion, a broken left arm, and a fractured left ankle. “Now if I go surfing and I get attacked by a shark, and I have to choose between my left ankle and my right, I can give it the left one because it’s always going to be my bad ankle,” he added helpfully.

“Why do you think you’d get the chance to choose which foot it would bite off,” Maria asked, then pinched the bridge of her nose. “No. Stop. Don’t answer that.”

Tony pouted, because he actually did have a very interesting answer, but he figured he’d been injured enough for one day. She probably couldn’t handle a hypothetical injury on top of all the real ones. “Can I go back to my dorm then? I want to be comfortable. The nurses keep looking at me.”

Maria raised an eyebrow. “Did you tell them about your shark idea, too?”

“No? Why would I ever? Yeah,” Tony admitted when she raised her other eyebrow skeptically.

“You may go back to your dorm, but Jim is in charge of your pain meds, because I know you’d get distracted and forget to take them,” she replied magnanimously. “And if that boy with the shoulder-to-waist ratio of a triangle tries to force money on you, you are to tell him in no uncertain terms that if he insists, I will play cards with him, and he will not like it.”

Tony tipped his head thoughtfully. “Yeah, okay. Sorry you had to come all the way from Italy.”

Maria tutted at him as she filled out his discharge papers. “You’re my son. Of course I came to see you. Would you be terribly upset if I went back? Everyone was quite upset that they couldn’t come with me. I want to tell them that you’re fine in person. That way when they send you get-well cards and candy, you can share it with me.”

“Nana’s bruttiboni, Nana’s bruttiboni,” Tony began to chant. “Auntie’s panforte! Auntie’s Baxin!” He paused, then couldn’t help a distressed whine. “Aw, I don’t even have a cool scar to show the cousins this summer! Take a picture of my black eyes so I look properly undernourished and pathetic, so they’ll give me more pastries.”

“Tony,” Maria tried to scold, but ended up laughing instead.

.-.-.-.

“Oh,” Tony said, surprised. “You’re in my room.”

“I brought you an ice-cream cake,” Thor said.

Tony tried to wheel himself over to it and couldn’t help a little snarl when he mostly knocked himself into the wall. Luckily, Thor was kind enough to take control of the wheelchair and maneuver him around.

_Sorry I almost killed you_ , the frosting on the cake said. It had a jaunty line of balloons along the top.

Thor stared at it, seeming only to realize now that the balloons and the message might be at odds. Eventually he just sagged, giving up on trying to come up with an explanation that would make the balloons better and instead simply saying, “It’s mocha-almond-fudge with chocolate cake.”

“I love mocha-almond-fudge,” Tony told him seriously. “And besides! It worked out. This way we found Wade’s tumor while it was operable. Who knows if they would have found it without me just fuckin’… breaking his face.”

“I still wish I hadn’t made you pitch down the stairs,” Thor sighed, and then added, in a petulant mumble, “Loki will never let me live it down.”

Tony tipped his head back to stare up at him, thoughtful. Finally, he asked, “Do you really want to hold my hand?”

“You’ve got such lovely hands,” Thor answered immediately. He reached out for Tony’s right one and took it gently between his own, one thumb gently tracing across his knuckles. “Even if this was all you’d allow me, I’d be perfectly happy.”

Tony stared at their hands, feeling his face begin to heat up. “God. You’re such a sap.”

“Yes,” Thor agreed, unashamed. “I like you. I think you’re very attractive. I enjoy watching you talk about your passions, even when I don’t understand them. I was amused by the way you turned on your heel and ran out the door when Hammer asked you about your family’s relationship with Senator Stern. I think that you’re fun and witty. And I’m sorry that you ever felt like I wouldn’t want you, because you’ve always been my type—small, smart, and snarky.”

Tony felt himself flushing darker, uncertain what to do with the information. Finally, he said, “Don’t call me small.”

“You’re tiny,” Thor said, smiling. “The perfect size to sit in my lap while we cuddle on the couch.”

Tony stared up at him, filled to the brim with emotion, because that honestly sounded so nice. “You’re an asshole because I’m not tiny at all,” he said, voice thick, and then, “Get me a slice of ice cream cake and a pill and we can cuddle.”

“I’ve made a mistake,” Rhodey said grimly when he came into the room and found them cuddled on the couch, Thor carefully feeding Tony bites of cake because he couldn’t cut bites properly with his left hand in a cast. “This is gross. I hate both of you.”

“You may have a slice of ice cream cake,” Tony told him magnanimously.

Rhodey began toward it. “Ooh, ice cream cake. Do you want me to put it in the freezer before it melts?”

“I think you should take it to the others to show there are no hard feelings about them almost killing me,” Tony replied.

“Aw yiss, motha fuckin’ ice cream cake,” Rhodey said, beginning to gather it up.

Thor watched him, frowning, then turned back to Tony in concern. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like more cake?”

“I’m lactose intolerant so I probably shouldn’t even be eating this,” Tony reasoned.

“Oh,” Thor said, and then barked, “Why the fuck are you eating this if you’re lactose intolerant!”

Tony scowled at him. “Because I’m twenty-two and like ice cream, Thor. I get to decide to ignore my body's obviously traitorous limitations.”

“You get used to this,” Rhodey assured Thor kindly. “Also a single slice of cake probably won’t hurt him, but he will definitely polish the whole thing off tonight while I’m asleep because he has no self-control, so it’s probably better that I take it anyway.”

Thor stared after him, frowning, then turned back to Tony to scold him for not telling him about his intolerance before he started feeding him. Unfortunately, Tony already had his mouth open for the next bite, and he looked like an adorable baby bird, and Thor was too soft for it to not affect him. So he sighed, scooped up another bite of ice cream cake, and spooned it into his mouth.

Tony beamed at him, then sighed and settled his head against Thor’s shoulder. “Tired,” he yawned. “You can finish my slice.”

“Fuck,” Thor whispered as he felt Tony nuzzling into his neck to get comfortable. He mostly just wanted to hold Tony in his arms and never let go.

“Wake me up for my next pill please,” Tony mumbled into his throat. “And pet my hair.”

“Oh my God,” Thor whispered, and honestly had to fight back tears as he felt Tony sag against him, hand automatically coming up to card through his hair. “Oh my God. You’re so fucking _precious_. I’m taking you out for pancakes tomorrow morning.”

Tony slumbered on, curling closer to Thor’s chest with a soft sigh. Thor could feel the curve of Tony’s smile against his skin, though, and that was quite alright with him.


End file.
